How to search content on a file server using SharePoint 2010 search

Problem

Normally, the SharePoint 2010 Search service is configured to index content in
your SharePoint Site Collection(s). But what if you want to index files on the file
server and let users search from one centralized location? This can be solved by
creating a "New Content Source".

Solution

Open SharePoint Central Administration and select "Manage service applications"
under "Application Management.

Find and select the "Search Service Application".

Click "Content Sources".

Select "New Content Source".

Give the new content source name. Then select the "File Shares" radio button.
In the "Start Address", enter the UNC path to the share (or subfolder within a share)
that you want to index. Normally you would allow crawling of subfolders, but if
you want finer control of what gets indexed, you can specify individual folder names
using the "Only crawl the folder of each start address" option."

Now it's time to configure a crawl schedule, but before setting those, check
the "Start full crawl of this content source checkbox". (You can check the box after
configuring the schedules, but I won't be showing the screenshot again.)

Full Crawl Schedule

You can choose any schedule you like for complete crawls (complete refresh of
content). I like to start with monthly and adjust from there if needed. (I have
never needed to change it.)

Incremental Crawl Schedule

This is what feeds the search indexes with new content, which you will want kept
pretty much in (near) real-time. How often depends on a combination of system resources
and needs. I have always felt that hourly incremental crawls were adequate.
For an hourly incremental search crawl configure as follows:

Going forward your File Server content will be included in your SharePoint search
results. Go ahead and try it out. (Depending on the size of the file share, you
may have to wait a bit for the initial full crawl to complete.)

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